WOMEN THE WORLD OVER.

Waikato Independent, Volume XXXIV, Issue 3110, 30 January 1934, Page 6

WOMEN THE WORLD OVER.

An increased demand for weddingrings is regarded in many quarters in Britain as a sure sign of confidence in industrial recovery. * * * Eitquctte is becoming strict, in some Chinese cities. Engaged couples may not walk arm-in-arm in Shanghai, while women are banned from riding bicycles in Canton. * * * There arc 27,789 cosmetologists (that's a good word for the beauty specialist!) employed to furnish the facials, permanent waves, and other beauty parlour services required by women in California. * * * In Paramaribo, Dutch Guiana, native women carry everything —from milk bottles to coffins—on their heads. Their aversion to using their hands is so strong that they even carry letters in this manner, weighted down by a brick. * * * The first women magistrate in the British Empire died recently at Edmonton, Canada. She was Mrs E. Murphy, appointed in 1916 to the bench of the Edmonton Juvenile Court —three years before women in England were admitted to similar positions. * * * The first woman associate of the Royal Academy of Art, Mrs A. L. Swynnerton, died recently in England at the age of 88. She was the first woman artist to receive academic honours since the' foundation membership of Mary Moser and Angelica Kauffmann ; in 1768. .She received her honour tardily in 1922, when she was elected to the academy largely on the recommendation of the late John Sargent, the famous portrait painter. * * * Irene Vanbrugh, for 40 years one of the most popular and delightful actresses of the English theatre, has succumbed to the studios. At the age of 60 she has begun work on her first film. Her part is that of the Princess of Auhalt-Zerbst, mother of the Russian Empress, in the elaborate film "Catherine the Great," now being directed at Elstree by Dr Paul Czinner, with Elizabeth Rergner and Douglas Fairbanks, junr., in the parts of Catherine and the young Tsar.

About 7000 women- teachers have charge of classes of boys in . England and Wales. Not only are women replacing men as teachers in boys' schools, but they are also being appointed as inspectors. Schoolmasters have become so worried by the increasing use of women for teachers that they have planned debates on the subject for their annual conference. They propose that there should be "an adequate supply of schoolmasters to ensure that all boys above infant school age are taught by men." Lady Helen Graham acts as pursebearer to the Duchess of York. It is well known that members of the Royal family never carry money or pay for things themselves on official occasions. As soon as money is wanted the Duchess turns smiling to her lady-in-waiting who at once opens her handbag, produces a serviceable-looking leather purse, and pays for the Royal purchases. One of the things the Princess Royal enjoyed most, after her marriage, was to produce her own money "like a private person," as she once put it. * * * There is a little crisis in the perfume industry in Paris because manufacturers have run short of attractive names. In this respect they are very much like the great dressmaking businesses, which now need not only dress designers, but also poets to devise attractive titles for their creations. When they want to name a new product scc-.t-malters are faced by the appalling facr t'mt there are already 40,000 registered brands of perfumes in France. Many 'nf these have been borrowed from popular films, poems, or musical compositions. Yet each of the makers arms at adding at least six to the list e/cry year. * * * Miss Jean Caron, England's only professional woman weaver, lias engaged in the ancient craft of tapestry for the past 26 years, working at her bench from nine o'clock till nightfall every day. In her work-room at Church Street, London, she is making tapestry in the same manner as the . weavers made it in England during the 12th century. Miss Caron asserts that weaving has never been women's work; they have always been embroiderers, and oven the celebrated Bayeux tapestries, made by women, were really embroideries. The smallest and cheapest tapestry Miss Carron makes costs £199, this being coarsest work at £2 a square foot. Her best work is £9 a square foot. Sometimes a week is required- to weave a square foot. ■